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Iraqis Prepare to Celebrate Mosul Victory

Iraqis prepared on Sunday to celebrate an expected victory over the Islamic State in Mosul, just blocks away from battles raging in the last few districts where the militants are dug in.

Troops tied white banners and Iraqi flags to lamp posts and damaged buildings including the Hadba minaret, which the militants blew up in June along with the adjoining Grand al-Nuri Mosque, as airstrikes and mortars rained down nearby, Reuters reported.

It was from al-Nuri’s pulpit that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate three years ago.

Authorities are planning a week of nationwide celebrations, according to a government statement, and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is expected to visit Mosul to formally declare victory.

Mosul’s fall would mark the effective end of the Iraqi half of the caliphate which Islamic State declared three years ago in parts of Iraq and Syria. The group still controls territory west and south of Mosul, where tens of thousands of civilians live.

Soldiers from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service retook the Makawi district of Mosul’s Old City on Sunday, a military statement said, a few blocks from the western banks of the Tigris. Reaching the river will give Iraqi forces control over the entire city and is expected by the end of this week.

A US-led international coalition is providing air and ground support to the offensive, which Iraq’s army and militarized police are also fighting in a multi-pronged attack.

Caption: Members of Iraqi forces make a ‘V’ sign and display an Iraqi flag as they arrive to take part in a victory celebration in Mosul, July 2.